The National tribune., 1887-06-09
\ PROSE POEM.
Gen. Wager SWayne'S Memorial Day
Address.

Among all the beautiful and eloquent trib-
utes to the heroic dead which Memorial Day
produced, there were few which for originality
Of thought, lofty aspiration, and sweet human
sympathy equaled the brief address delivered
by Gen. Wager Swayne at the beautiful ceme-
terry Of the Soldiers Home, near Washington,
ID. G. The following is a portion of it:
1t seems long ago that these men died. It is
so long ago that there are here today grown
men and women who were little children then
1t is so long'ago that perhaps even to ourselves
their memory has not been ever since all that
it might have been.
And yet these men might be alive to-day,
but for their willingness to run the risk of
death. The fact that we are here proves that.
They were our comrades once. They were
as likely to live long as we. Their prospects
were as bright, their interest in life as keen as
any we had then, or any we have now. What
ever of life we have enjoyed since then, what
ever of life we hope for yet is all within the
measure Of what these men gave up, who
might have been here to-day.
In large sense, they are here. This is their
ground. This is their day. We come here
because of them. Their memories look Us in
the face. Their spirits also as we trust, look
on US now from everlasting life.
The task they shared with Us was one in
which the death of some became the price of
victory for the rest. They paid, we hold. The
years since then, that fail to measure their
loss, fail also-altogether fail-to measure what
they bought for Us.
For they died for our country. There is a
country, vast and one, where men are free,
where homes abound, where God is known :
where to be born means hope and opportunity,
and where to die is still TO feel that freedom and
the fruits of industry survive for those whom
I1I1 NI.A
There is not blessing it yields that we can
wholly sever from these men. Whether it
be the strength abroad we have as great
people, the peace at home we have since all are
free, the manliness and purity and industry we
have from equal rights, our breadth of inter-
course, or our abundant manufactures; no
man can point to any one Of these and say we
should still have had this il these men had not
died-no man can tell Us what would other
wise have been.
All this they have preserved and handed
down to us. This day, having these things
from them, we are here upon their ground.
How shall we reckon up with them? Not
grudgingly, at least. What they did was
done willingly, and not because they must.
What Is done with good will can only be
paid with good will. If paid because one
must, then the debt of the heart remains
unpaid, and that is the real debt. Low
ingly therefore, because Of their lives, rev.
erently also because of their deaths, we strew
their graves with flowers. Perhaps at the
same time it will occur to rs that in time past
we have not thought enough of them. Possibly
in the rush of life, in the stress of care or in
the pinch ofneed, we have been drawn or driven
from due thought of them or possibly the dull,
dumb pain of melancholy has made us insensi-
bic to difference between life and DEATH Enough
is left, in any case, to bring US here; and
being here / know no better way than to look
up, not down look out, not in; to look them
frankly in the face and ask what they would
have of Us.
1t is not sufficient answer that we do them
honor, and we hold them in affectionate re-
membrance. They were not seeking glory
when they died. They had in their own
friends and families an affection better, because
nearer, than our own. The lapse of these years
has taught Us that the truest merit of these
dead is that they were unknown.
The soldier of distinction might be fired by a
laudable ambition and elated with personal
honor and renown. The very uniform which
these men wore made them each simply a SOL
dier indistinguishable from the mass self was
cut of from what they did-counsry alone re-
manned. That country now sees in them true
and certified unselfshness-t purest gold of
service. Therefore, we cannot pay these men
sufficiently with honor, for that was not what
they sought.
Nor does it answer that we have made some
provision for their families. Nothing we have
done or can do at all compares with what they
would have done themselves if they had lived
The thought of money as sufficient compensa-
tion to their families for the absence of them
selves is mockery.
Where, then, shall we look? What is there
we can do? The answer must come from that
for which they died. They counted that more
than glory parted forever from their families
that their families might love that; for that
they gave up life itself. Beside all honor to
their memories; beside what compensation to
their families can be made, there remains this,
that we shall care for that for which they
cared; shall give for that for which they gave; |;
that in some sense we live for that for which
they died. 1t is no faneiful suggestion. If
this day once more we take these men to heart
and make them q new interest in this country
that we live in; if we think of it as our land
for which they died, they will be fruitful in
our lives, and so will be living still in that for
which they died. To him who dies for any
cause the truest gratitude is that we make that
cause to live. If we but take this hence to-day,
if next year we can come here and can bring
some part of life that has been spent for coun-
try as for them, then perhaps we can meet them
heart 10 heart and look them in the face with
out reprOach.